Lafcadio Hearn Quotes

Quotes about:

• All good work is done the way ants do things: Little by little.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Work, Done, Littles

  80 Copy quote

• No man can possibly know what life means, what the world means, until he has a child and loves it. And then the whole universe changes and nothing will ever again seem exactly as it seemed before.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Children, Father, Mean

  Lafcadio Hearn (2008). “The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn Including the Japanese Letters”, p.369, Wildside Press LLC

  53 Copy quote

• Japanese affection is not uttered in words; it scarcely appears even in the tone of voice; it is chiefly shown in acts of exquisite courtesy and kindness.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Kindness, Voice, Tone

  Lafcadio Hearn (2015). “Out of the East: Reveries and Studies in New Japan”, p.39, Routledge

  5 Copy quote

• Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under taxes and frauds and maladministrations so that it has become a study for archaeologists...but it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  New Orleans, Ohio, Cities

  "Albino zombie snakes and voodoo potions: the legacy of Lafcadio Hearn, raconteur extraordinaire" by Jim Gabour, www.theguardian.com. March 05, 2015.

  14 Copy quote

• One thing is always wrong-always: to cause suffering in others for the purpose of gratifying one's own pleasures; that is everlastingly wrong.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Suffering, Principles, Purpose

  12 Copy quote

• It has been wisely observed by the greatest of modern thinkers that mankind has progressed more rapidly in every other respect than in morality.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Motherhood, Literature, Morality

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.150, tredition

  5 Copy quote

• Woo the muse of the odd.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Odd, Muse

  Lafcadio Hearn (2002). “Lafcadio Hearn's America: Ethnographic Sketches and Editorials”, p.13, University Press of Kentucky

  4 Copy quote

• In order to comprehend the beauty of a Japanese garden, it is necessary to understand - or at least to learn to understand - the beauty of stone.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Beauty, Learning, Garden

  Lafcadio Hearn (2015). “Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan”, p.4, Booklassic

  53 Copy quote

• Literary success of any enduring kind is made by refusing to do what publishers want, by refusing to write what the public wants, by refusing to accept any popular standard, by refusing to write anything to order.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Writing, Order, Want

  4 Copy quote

• But what is after all the happiness of mere power? There is a greater happiness possible than to be lord of heaven and earth; that is the happiness of being truly loved.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Heaven, Literature, Earth

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.84, tredition

  4 Copy quote

• The more you wish to be, the wiser you are; while the wish to have is apt to be foolish in proportion to its largeness.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Wish, Wiser You, Foolish

  Lafcadio Hearn (2014). “Exotics and Retrospectives”, p.147, LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY

  4 Copy quote

• I may venture to say, loosely, that in Judo there is a sort of counter for every twist, wrench, pull, push or bend. Only the Judo expert does not oppose such movements at all. No, he yields to them. But he does much more than yield to them. He aids them with a wicked sleight that causes the assailant to put out his own shoulder, to fracture his own arm, or in a desparate case, even to break his own neck or back.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Yield, Wicked, Experts

  27 Copy quote

• The fact, however, to which I want to call attention is that the master of Judo never relies upon his own strength. He scarcely uses his own strength in the greatest emergency. Then what does he use? Simply the strength of his antagonist. The force of the enemy is the only means by which that enemy is overcome.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Mean, Rely Upon, Enemy

  11 Copy quote

• The Shadow-maker shapes forever.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Forever, Shadow, Shapes

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Kotto: Being Japanese Curios, With Sundry Cobwebs”, p.109, Tuttle Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• The tea ceremony requires years of training and practice ... yet the whole of this art, as to its detail, signifies no more than the making and serving of a cup of tea. The supremely important matter is that the act be performed in the most perfect, most polite, most graceful, most charming manner possible.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Art, Years, Practice

  Lafcadio Hearn (2005). “Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation”, p.390, Cosimo, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

• Broad tolerance in the matter of beliefs is necessarily a part of the new ethics.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Tolerance, Matter, Ethics

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.159, tredition

  16 Copy quote

• Whatever doubts or vexations one has in Japan, it is only necessary to ask one's self: "Well, who are the best people to live with?

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Japan, Self, People

  Lafcadio Hearn (2008). “The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn Including the Japanese Letters”, p.160, Wildside Press LLC

  4 Copy quote

• The highest duty of the man is not to his father, but to his wife; and for the sake of that woman he abandons all other earthly ties, should any of these happen to interfere with that relation.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Father, Men, Ties

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.18, tredition

  7 Copy quote

• As a result, the highly civilized man can endure incomparably more than the savage, whether of moral or physical strain. Being better able to control himself under all circumstances, he has a great advantage over the savage.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Men, Savages, Literature

  Lafcadio Hearn (1922). “Books and Habits”

  4 Copy quote

• The time of illusion, then, is the beautiful moment of passion; it represents the artistic zone in which the poet or romance writer ought to be free to do the very best that he can.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Beautiful, Passion, Romance

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.35, tredition

  9 Copy quote

• The great principle of Western society is that competition rules here as it rules in everything else. The best man - that is to say, the strongest and cleverest - is likely to get the best woman, in the sense of the most beautiful person.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Beautiful, Men, Competition

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.25, tredition

  9 Copy quote

• But every great scripture, whether Hebrew, Indian, Persian, or Chinese, apart from its religious value will be found to have some rare and special beauty of its own; and in this respect the original Bible stands very high as a monument of sublime poetry and of artistic prose.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Religious, Chinese, Sublime

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.107, tredition

  23 Copy quote

• There is one type of ideal woman very seldom described in poetry - the old maid, the woman whom sorrow or misfortune prevents from fulfilling her natural destiny.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Destiny, Swag, Sorrow

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.88, tredition

  8 Copy quote

• How sweet Japanese woman is! All the possibilities of the race for goodness seem to be concentrated in her.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Sweet, Race, Goodness

  Lafcadio Hearn (2008). “The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn Including the Japanese Letters”, p.137, Wildside Press LLC

  8 Copy quote

• For this reason, to study English literature without some general knowledge of the relation of the Bible to that literature would be to leave one's literary education very incomplete.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Would Be, Literature, Study

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.105, tredition

  7 Copy quote

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